Programs
Breaking The Cycle
When you’re hungry, you’re in survival mode. Feeding Northeast Florida rescues food that would normally go to waste, and distributes nutritious groceries through our network of pantries to our neighbors struggling with food insecurity.
Feeding Northeast Florida’s Core Programs
Ensuring no one in our community goes hungry
Partner Agencies
Feeding Northeast Florida sits at the center of a vast network of more than 400 partner agencies and food programs, including schools, churches, community centers, and more. Together, we serve more than 97,000 meals monthly.
Mobile Pantry
Feeding Northeast Florida goes beyond just providing food. We ensure families facing hunger receive quality food that meets Feeding America’s healthy food standards. More than 72% of the food distributed is food that’s aligned with MyPlate nutrition standards.
SNAP & Medicaid Assistance
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as food stamps, is a federal program that helps working families, seniors, students, pregnant and postpartum women, and individuals experiencing temporary hardship access nutritious food. SNAP serves millions of Americans, including families with children, elderly adults on fixed incomes, people with disabilities, expectant and new mothers, and those between jobs who need support to maintain healthy diets while working toward financial stability.
While SNAP provides crucial food assistance to help families thrive, Medicaid provides essential medical coverage to children, caregivers, and seniors in our community. Feeding Northeast Florida is here to guide you through the application process for both programs, ensuring you can access the support you need to build a healthier future for yourself and your family.
Snack Packs
With over 90,000 children in our service area often facing a lack of access to nutritious food after school and on weekends, Feeding Northeast Florida assembles and delivers thousands of SnackPacks directly to schools and partnering agencies that work with students each week. These nutrient dense, delicious, and easy to prepare options appear as prepacked SnackPacks for younger children, or disassembled SnackStations for older students who prefer to build their own snack bag. The SnackPack program allows the food bank, school administration, social workers, and teachers to work collaboratively on the challenges that students face when they do not have reliable access to food, including poor nutrition, increased rates of depression and anxiety, lower IQ, shorter attention spans, and lower academic achievement.
Fresh Selects
Feeding Northeast Florida provides fresh fruit such as apples, oranges, strawberries, and mangoes weekly to schools as requested
Snack Stations
Targeted Mobile Pantries
Senior Food Pantries
We work with several senior centers and senior communities to host regular client-choice pantries on-site. Residents are able to select the food they prefer which includes low sodium and whole wheat products to meet the dietary needs of seniors.
Military Focused Food Distributions
Thanks to community sponsors like Humana Military and CSX, we provide vital food to strengthen active-duty military support organizations across our region.
Each month we partner with organizations like the City of Jacksonville Military Affairs and Veterans Department, the chapels and Fleet Reserve Associations at Mayport and NAS Jax to provide mobile pantry distributions that feed hundreds of active duty service members and their families. We proudly serve hand-in-hand with these groups to serve military families with dignity and consistency.
Military Support Organizations
Prescriptive Nutrition
Established in 2016, the Prescriptive Nutrition Program integrates nutrition counseling with food assistance directly within a healthcare setting. Originally designed to address frequent emergency room visits caused by health complications, like diabetes and hypertension, among food-insecure patients, this program creates a seamless connection between healthcare and nutrition. Our registered dietitians work as part of clinical care teams, providing specialized nutrition counseling to patients referred by healthcare providers. Patients leave their medical appointments with fresh produce from our on-site pantries, exemplifying our mission of using food as a catalyst to strengthen lives and communities, and our vision of access to nutritious food for all.
Nutrition Pack Program
Our Nutrition Pack program focuses on supporting our neighbors that face difficulty accessing traditional pantries and high risk factors: seniors, pregnant/new moms at risk of infant mortality, and Holocaust Survivors. The balanced, nutritious meal packs provided are tailored to specific health and dietary needs. These personalized meals are carefully packed by dedicated FNEFL volunteers and delivered directly to homes or community centers. With the help of volunteers and DoorDash, we ensure these supplemental groceries are delivered quickly and reliably, promoting health and well-being in our community.
Nutrition Education
Our SNAPEd Nutrition Education program, made possible by a contract with DCF, strategically positions nutrition educators throughout our service area to support agency partners and families facing hunger. This initiative aims to empower individuals with vital nutrition education, healthy swaps, and cooking tips, fostering healthier lifestyles. With a dedicated team comprised of nutrition educators, registered dietitians, and chefs, we ensure that our program is as informative as it is delicious. By bridging the gap between knowledge and practice, we’re not just feeding individuals; we’re nourishing a healthier future.
Renewing Dignity
Our Renewing Dignity program tackles period poverty experienced by 100,000 people in Northeast Florida by providing essential menstrual products alongside food distributions. This initiative ensures that people don’t have to choose between food and hygiene. By working with community partners, we distribute these period products to support the health and dignity of thousands. Since it’s inception, this program has distributed more than 4 million period products in North Florida.
Community Kitchen
Feeding Northeast Florida is developing a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen that will be operational in Q4 2025 with the capacity to produce 3,500-4,000 nutritious, ready-to-eat meals per day using donated ingredients like fresh produce, whole grains, and lean proteins. The kitchen will serve as a cornerstone for health initiatives, with future plans to create medically-tailored meals for conditions like diabetes and hypertension in partnership with various health clinics. Supported by major funding from Florida Blue and other community partners, the facility will also function as a workforce training center, providing valuable culinary career opportunities for the community.
Disaster Relief
At Feeding Northeast Florida, we play a critical role in Florida’s disaster relief network by partnering with Feeding Florida and local Emergency Management centers to ensure coordinated emergency response across the state. We maintain a constant state of readiness with more than 88 pallets of disaster relief food and water stored in our facilities, which can be quickly deployed to communities throughout Florida when disasters strike. We also take a proactive approach to community preparedness by hosting mock disaster drills and food distribution events alongside local law enforcement and emergency operations centers, where we provide hurricane preparedness supplies and educational resources to help our neighbors build resilience and stay safe during hurricane season.
